(Common) Chaffinch

Male: Pink underparts, grey crown, and two white wing bars.

Female: Olive-brown upperparts with pale underparts.

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The Chaffinch is our commonest finch and has striking double white wing bars.
The wing bars are formed by white patches on the wing coverts, and primary
and secondary wing feathers. Its summer plumage is brighter that its
winter plumage.

The male Chaffinch has a pink breast and cheeks, blue-grey crown and nape,
and chestnut brown back. In summer, its bill is grey-blue, turning to pale
brown in the winter.

The female has an olive-brown back, and grey-brown underparts becoming
almost white towards the rump, which is greenish. The juveniles are
similar to the female but lack the greenish rump. The bill is brown in
both the female and juveniles.

The Brambling is similar but has white rump
and all-black tail, the Chaffinch has white outer tail feathers in both
sexes. They often form mixed flocks in the winter; the Brambling's white
rump and Chaffinch's white wing bars are diagnostic features.

Being our commonest finch it is sometimes easy to overlook its beauty
despite the male possibly having more colours in its plumage than any other
British bird.

Male Chaffinch

Female Chaffinch

Scientific Name

Fringilla coelebs

Length

14.5 cm (6")

Wing Span

24.5-28.5 cm (10-11½")

Weight

18-29 g (¾-1 oz)

Breeding Pairs

5400000

Present

All Year

Status

Green

Voice

The Chaffinch is well known for its "rain" call which is a
repetitive short trill, and a loud "pink pink" call.

The song can be remembered by the phrase: "chip chip chip chooee chooee cheeoo".

Feeding

Chaffinches usually feed on seeds and insects, like caterpillars, during the breeding season.

In the garden, they
tend to forage on the ground for spilt seed (sunflower seeds and hearts)
from the hanging feeders.

Nesting

The Chaffinches build a neat cup nest from moss, grass, and feathers
bound with spiders' webs, lined with feathers and wool, and decorated with
lichen and flakes of bark. The nest is usually in a fork of a tree or
shrub.

The eggs of the Chaffinch are about 20 mm by 15 mm in size, and are smooth,
glossy, and light blue with purple-brown blotches. The duties of incubating
the eggs are performed by the female. The newly-hatched young are fed by both
adults.

Breeding Starts

Clutches

Eggs

Incubation (days)

Fledge (days)

April

1-2

2-8

10-16

11-18

Movements

Resident birds are mostly sedentary with juveniles moving only short
distances from the place where they were hatched.

Between September and March, the population increases with 10-20 million
immigrants from Scandinavia and Western Europe looking for food. These birds
are usually found in large flocks on open farmland, whereas resident British
birds are usually in woodlands and hedgerows.

Conservation

Chaffinch populations were affected in the 1950s by use of agricultural
chemicals and changes in farming practice, but now seems to be doing all
right.